Jamyang Norbu's blog
Recently in a video interview with Voice of Tibet, a staff member of the Dalai Lama’s Private Office, Ngaba Tsegyam-la, claimed I had misrepresented the Dalai Lama’s statements in an audience I was granted last year; that I had claimed the Dalai had said “struggle for independence” (rangzen tso-sho) and that the Middle Way policy …
Continue reading “Misrepresenting My Audience (of May 2018) with the Dalai Lama.”
The big news following the 59’ Uprising was, of course, the escape of the Dalai Lama from Lhasa, which was featured in cover stories in TIME, LIFE, Reader’s Digest and other journals and papers. But the world press also took note of the violence and oppression taking place inside Tibet and journalists attempted to cover …
The Legacy of the former “Enthroned” Prime Minister, His Eminence, Professor Samdhong Rinpoche. Tibetan historians have used the figurative expression “nurturing the embers of the dharma” (tempae mero solwa) to describe how such dedicated scholars and teachers as Lotsawa Rinchen Sangpo, Lekpe Sherap, Drom Tonpa, and the great Bengali spiritual master, Atisa, labored tirelessly to keep Buddhist teachings alive …
Continue reading “Extinguishing the Embers of Freedom (Part 1)”
Chinese police shielding themselves from Tibetan missiles. Image: uprisingarchive.com. DON’T STOP THE REVOLUTION by Jamyang Norbu, High Asia, 2018. A Review by Dr. Warren W. Smith Jr. …
All the delegates at the 5th International Rangzen Conference received a group audience and a photo opportunity with the Dalai Lama on the last day of the conference. It was a large group and I was kneeling close by his feet (he was standing) so most probably he didn’t see me. I understand he later …
REFLECTIONS ON GYALO THONDUP & MODERN TIBETAN HISTORY Power Struggle in Exile – The Opening Guns The above image by pioneering color photographer, Ernst Hass, compellingly captures the early Tibetan refugee experience: dislocation, disease, trauma, desperate poverty and so much more. It also underlines the native toughness of these women and men, and their readiness to …
Continue reading “Untangling a Mess of Petrified Noodles II”
REFLECTIONS ON GYALO THONDUP & MODERN TIBETAN HISTORY Politicians and celebrities around the world employ ghostwriters for their memoirs and screeds. So the autobiography of a prominent Tibetan political figure being ghosted (or co-written) should come as no surprise to anyone. What was unexpected about Mr. Gyalo Thondup’s archly titled The Noodlemaker of Kalimpong (NMK), …
Quite a few months have passed since the Sikyong elections and the strange events that followed. Nonetheless, being reminded of that depressing experience by a fuzzy Facebook video of the emetic countenance of Speaker Penpa Tsering staring at his rival Dr. Lobsang Sangay being sworn in for yet another five years of purposeless posturing, is still enough to plunge …
Photograph in Meng Zang Yuebao of “The Divine Child” (lingtong), May 1939, Kumbum Monastery. That Tibetans are devoted to the Dalai Lama is pretty much a given. Most of them express this devotion enthusiastically (but quite innocently) by celebrating his birthday, his Nobel Peace Prize day and also by holding elaborate “Long Life” (tenshug) ritual …
Last November, as I was preparing to fly to Toronto for my talk “Forging a Rangzen Strategy”, I received an email from Gashi Tenpa la, one of the TNC organizers there. He had an amusing suggestion for a concluding message I could leave the audience: “Jamyang la, don’t forget to tell them to choose the …
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